So our nearly 3 months in Africa was quite amazing in
all respects, but our visit came to an end as we moved
on to India Thursday the 8th.  After all the stories
we have heard of India - about the chaos of people,
the poverty, the crazy drivers, and the pollution -
both Than and I found Delhi to be quite a stroll in
the park in comparison to our African experiences!  
But I digress a moment to discuss our last days in
Africa and then our introduction to India.

As Than mentioned, we spent the last few days in
Africa on the island of Zanzibar just a 2 hour ferry
journey from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  The ferry
arrives in Stone Town, which is a very picturesque
town where most of the island population is located. 
Stone Town itself is quite small though and is made up
of very narrow streets and very old buildings of
interesting architecture and decaying condition.  We
felt that it was similar in ways to Venice, Italy and
Sevilla, Spain with alot of Muslim and African thrown
in.  The buildings are of course stone, and are middle
eastern in style.  The balconies often have intricate
lattice work and the doors are often ornately carved
wooden doors and jams with brass work on them.  The
doors of Zanzibar happen to be a notorious part of
this island.  The narrow streets are busy with the
locals sitting, playing dominos, kids running about,
or bicycles and mopeds zooming in and out with horns
and bells blaring.  On many streets there are curio
shops with most of the same carvings you see
throughout africa but occasionally some indigenous
wooden carved chestes and beautiful colorful cloths.  

We spent 2 days in Stone Town exploring and relaxing;
Often watching the sunset from the Africa House
rooftop bar.  On the 2nd day we took a spice tour and
visited some spice and fruit plantations where we got
to see many spice and fruit plants as well as sampling
the goods.  We tasted some of the most interesting and
tastey fruits we've ever encountered.  If you ever see
a jack fruit or a soapot fruit in the store please try
them out.  Zanzibar was turned into a spice island by
the Omanis many years ago and is often referred to as
the "Spice Island".

The last 2 days we spent on the north side at a
bungalo lodge away from most anything on the beautiful
coral sands.  We had never encountered a real coral
sand beach like this.  The sand was very soft and
which and it was a shell hunters paradise.  There were
only about 6 others at the lodge so it was very quite
and relaxing.

Finally we returned to Stone Town on Wednesday the 7th
and spent the day waiting for the evening ferry which
left at 10pm and took all night to reach Dar Es
Salaam.  We didn't manage much sleep since the ferry
got extremely bumpy along the way and then we arrived
at 6am.  So we bummed around Dar Es Salaam for a while
and caught our plane to Muscat, Oman where we caught
our onward flight to Delhi lasting overnight till
5:30am.

So without much sleep in 2 days we arrived in Delhi
both very wary of what we would encounter especially
in our present state.  To our surprise we arrived when
there was little traffic and had a nice enough cab
driver who quickly took us to a tourist office and
then we found a hotel to sleep the sleep of the dead!

Okay, so the cab driver did take us to a unofficial
tourist office which then assured us there were no
rooms available (we did try and call one on our own
that was full so we didn't have too much reason to
argue) and then put us in a $30 a night hotel.  But we
were tired and thankful not to have a hassle and were
willing to put up with that just to have a place to
stay.  The next day we found a reasonable place in the
main bazaar that costs us only $6 a night total with
our own bathroom.

We soon found out that Saturday was the big Holi
Festival.  Holi is a day when most of India celebrates
by smearing everyone with brightly colored powder
dyes, squirting people with dyed water, or throwing
water balloons with colored dye at passers by.  This
is all in good fun and most often people run up to you
with a hand full of this colored dye (usually bright
green or red) and smear it on your hair and face
saying "Happy Holi!".  Of course you are obliged to do
the same if you are armed with dye.  So you see people
all over the city covered in color often from head to
toe.  It's very interesting to witness and be a part
of.  Sometimes bands of people walk down the street
playing drums and there are plenty of men getting very
very wasted and stumbling down the street.  Than and I
just watched and explored around the city and got
smeared with dye from time to time.

The city is very crowded, although not too much more
than some of the places we have already visited
(Istanbul).  There are many many people sleeping on
the curb or on their bicycle rickshaws!  You can see
kids bathing in the street as well.  To make matters
worse, there are cows all over the place just
wandering around as if there may be a pasture just
around the corner; these cows have never seen a
pasture!  So the Hindus feel the cow is sacred and so
these cows roam unbothered all over the city.

Delhi does have some nice parts and there are quite a
few rich people living in very nice places of the
city.  The English influence is obvious when you
encounter the countless huge traffic circles and there
are some colonial stone buildings around these
circles.  There are even some very nice parks in the
city.  In other places there are endless streets of
shops with people, rickshaws, and mopeds rushing
through them.  It's a very interesting city to visit. 
Unfortunely, there is little in the way of beer
really.  Sometimes that would be nice to sooth us
after a crazy day.  The two bars that we have been to
are pretty desolate though.

Okay a word on cricket.  Than and I have been watching
it on TV from time to time now and have even seen it
in the park and heard our travelling friends from New
Zealand and Australia espouse the wonders of cricket. 
But alas, we cannot find a single interesting quality
of the game.  It lasts forever, they don't even try to
hit the ball very far, the referee wears a tie for
God's sake,  and the fielders never really seem to do
much fielding and when they do they drop the ball half
the time!  I assure you that there is no need to look
into this sport for it makes baseball seem like an
action sport!  We were hoping to see competition bass
fishing instead of Cricket!

So today we hired a rickshaw for $10 to take us all
over Delhi sightseeing.  Our driver was excellent and
we were able to see much of the town.  This was much
better than taking a tour bus and having to deal with
a huge group.  It's so nice to come and go as you
please.  

I can't sign off without mentioning the food.  It's
amazing!  It is true that the food all throughout this
trip has been pretty good.  But here it is just
excellent to have so much cheap and tastey indian
food.  So far we haven't gotten sick and let's hope it
stays that way!

Today I also went into a music store and found a new
Epiphone guitar for $35!  My travel Martin guitar has
a front that is caving in so I am excited that I will
be able to replace it and have something with a hard
case which I won't need to worry about so much.  

Oakly doakly folks, time for me to sign off.  Write
and say hello to us from time to time.  Of course we
miss everyone and look forward to sharing our stories
with you in person.

Cheers,

Chris and Than